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Devistater writes "The official Matrix page has word of the first officially released widescreen Anime episode of the Animatrix for download (in quicktime format). This is the first of 4 free episodes that will be released on the web. A total of 9 episodes will be availible for purchase on DVD within the next few months. The feature-quality anime shorts range in length from 6 minutes to 16 minutes. There's a trailer availible if you want to get a taste for what they will be like."

...4 free episodes that will be released on the web. A total of 9 episodes will be availible for purchase on DVD within the next few months.

I think more movie companies should do that with miniseries and stuff, give out the first few episodes for free so they get more exposure. I mean, it's an incredibly smart way of letting people know what the premis is, and it also shows a lot of goodwill on the part of the company. I think I just might buy the boxed set due to this, whereas previously I wasn't really that interested in it, and I think overall there are a lot of people like that.

Of course there are also people who will just dl the first 4 eps, then pirate the rest.:P

Because of the need for cover? Your skull is robust enough most of the time as well so why do humans need to wear safety helmets?More interesting: Why does one of the robots watch tv instead of processing the signal itself?

Because it doesn't have a license to decode the signal. The same reason it's illegal to watch DVDs on Linux. Plus the additional restrictions introduced in the Digital Rights Management Act of 2005. You know, the one the MPAA demanded passed before making HDDVDs.

Because humans suffer from a regrettable tendancy to anthropomorphize machines. Presumably, they wear construction helmets so you can differentiate them from the remarkably similar domestic-service or other models.

It would be much more sensible to ask what a robot is doing sitting on risers for a "lunch break," or why they have a zillion of them pulling a cargo container up the ramp great-pyramid-construction style.

This Matrix comic, which is the only one on the site to have Wachowski co-credit (so far as I know) gives an expanded version of the domestic-droid murder incident shown in this anime...so I think that it is indeed safe to assume that this short was co-written by the Wachowskis.

Thanks. I managed to work that out, and compiled and ran it...the problem is, it's not a perfect patch. There are two audio streams involved in the movie: the matrix-code-and-chirping-letters sound of the opener, and then the music and voiceover for the anime. They're supposed to play one after the other...but instead, they play simultaneously. As a result, the movie is about 10 seconds out of sync with the sound.

Okay, I recompiled mplayer with the use-qtx-codecs enabled, and subsequently downloaded ffmpeg and compiled it again, and this time it'll play the first frame of the Matrix movie, and the audio, but not the video.

MPlayer interrupted by signal 11 in module: decode_audio- MPlayer crashed by bad usage of CPU/FPU/RAM.
Recompile MPlayer with --enable-debug and make a 'gdb' backtrace and
disassembly. For details, see DOCS/bugreports.html#crash.b.- MPlayer crashed. This shouldn't happen.
It can be a bug in the MPlayer code _or_ in your drivers _or_ in your gcc
version. If you think it's MPlayer's fault, please read DOCS/bugreports.html
and follow the instructions there. We can't and won't help unless you provide
this information when reporting a possible bug.SoundConverterEndConversion:0SoundConverte rClose:0

If anyone can help out with this, I'd appreciate it. I don't have any trouble watching other quicktimes with this...

It's great! The visuals are spectacular. If you've read the manga on the Matrix site before you will recognize both the style and some of the characters. I really admire the producers of the Matrix for not just turning it into a movie franchise, but into a fully-fledged universe, like Star Wars did. I'm looking forward to the rest...

... In the first film it they intimated that they didnt really know much history - they didnt even know the date. This seems to show quite a detailed history of what happened.

Its also quite sympathetic to the machines. If you are one of the last of a group which has almost been wiped out, you are unlikely to see your history from the point of view of those who did the wiping.

I think that's part of the reason it's done as anime, rather than live-action: to distinguish between the two points of view. The manga on the Matrix website is done from two points of view: that of the robots, before the war, and that of people still inside the Matrix who become aware in some way that the world may not be "real". Perhaps later episodes will take the human, trapped-in-the-matrix perspective.

Just because "they" as in the characters in the first movie didn't know much of the history doesn't mean that there can't be other stories which do illuminate the history in the setting. Also the humans you meet in the Matrix are initially from humans that had been grown/put to sleep. The seeting of the movie is after the machines enslaved mankind.

You still need to take time into account. When in the Zion archives did this information exist? This viewing of this material could take place 100, 10, or 2 years after the movie, when the information has been discovered and catalogued. You also need to take into account how much information that the Zion "elders" (I believe they use that term at some point) have released to the human populace at large. It's easily explainable.

Really? There was some Nazi (or was it Soviet?) propeganda released called 'The Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion' or something similar, which detailed how the Jewish supposedly were really running the world... I wonder....

What does The Matrix have to do with anime? As far as I know, The Matrix is an American movie. Have they hired a Japanese studio to make the animation? Or is it just an American studio trying to mimic the Japanese styles?

As already mentioned, the Matrix was *definitely* influenced by anime (and martial arts movies). Story has many similarities to Lain (as mentioned) and also Ghost in the Shell. In fact, there's a website pointing out the similar scenes
http://www.geocities.com/tacobelll/matrixgits/
Even the green text stuff was in the opening credits for the GiTS movie. Of course, that's not to say that the animes didn't get influenced by earlier sci-fi works and such, however, the Matrix bears a lot of sylistic similarity to anime, particularly GiTS and Lain (when she starts getting into the Wired, got wires clipped to herself as the interface...).

The Matrix Revisited has a 10-minute feature that explains how it came about. The Wachowskis got some of the best and brightest animators in Japan (and a couple from outside of Japan) to do some anime shorts for them. The animators, all of whom were enthralled with The Matrix, were only too happy to oblige. (And why shouldn't they be? The Wachowskis stole the memes from their anime; they were only just taking them back again.:)

The announcement of the Animatrix last year did answer one burning question...it was mentioned in news stories that, aside from Final Fantasy, Square USA would produce only one other bit of animation--a short film--but it was never mentioned what it was. Then, when it was announced, a lot of people were going, "Ohhhh!"

The problem with The Matrix was its message: technology is inherently bad. The dialog places the blame of the whole Matrix world being due to "scientists messing with things they shouldn't" (paraphrased). Other movies, like the Terminator series, are just as bad. I don't get why such a blatantly anti-technology movie is so popular with the technology crowd, other than appreciation for the work that went into the special effects.

It's because the message is not that technology is inherently bad. In fact the technology aspects of it weren't strictly necessary. The movie could have easily been done with a race of aliens enslaving humans, or a group of wizards. The way it was presented, however, was a suitably plausible way of telling the story. The underlying messages, of which there are many I'm amazed at the tremendous amount of thought that went into the first movie (and also afraid that the new ones will be nothing more than action movies), focus more on metaphysical questions.

Additionally, the concept of the universe (similar to the Terminator universe) is that there was a conflict between humans and artificial life. The first movie was told from the viewpoint of a human, of course a human would view the robots as evil, they're the enemy. A story told from the viewpoint of one of the robots wouldn't portray technology as bad at all. Watch the first Animatrix, there is definitely a pro-machine slant to it.

I don't get why such a blatantly anti-technology movie is so popular with the technology crowd, other than appreciation for the work that went into the special effects.

Exploring the consequences of an increasing dependence upon technology is one of the classic themes of science fiction -- man builds computers or robots (take your pick), computers/robots become self-aware and decide to turn on their creator, man must fight for his freedom. It's right up there with time travel and means of transporting people/stuff faster than the speed of light.

These things are all MacGuffins. Don't let them distract you from the storytelling.

What makes science fiction interesting is not the idea of self-aware computers that want to kill us, or time travel, but the implications of those things for future societies... how people respond to them. Dan Simmons wrote one of the best S.F. stories I've ever read in "Hyperion" and its follow-ups and I'm pretty sure he used all three of those MacGuffins, maybe more. Alfred Bester wrote two incredible novels that, using your analysis, were "anti-telepathy" or "anti-teleportation," but in fact they were much more.

There are lots of bad S.F. books and films out there as well that explore (or try, or maybe don't even try) the same themes. "The Matrix" and the first two "Terminator" movies certainly were not bad. You might argue that one or more (or all) of those episodes of ST:TOS where Kirk blows up the evil computer controlling a society, or his ship, are better examples of how not to do it.

So, to sum up, it's not only Hollywood, it's not really Luddism, and if done right can be really interesting and enjoyable.

The problem with The Matrix was its message: technology is inherently bad. The dialog places the blame of the whole Matrix world being due to "scientists messing with things they shouldn't" (paraphrased). Other movies, like the Terminator series, are just as bad. I don't get why such a blatantly anti-technology movie is so popular with the technology crowd, other than appreciation for the work that went into the special effects.

Don't be silly. The insistence that people must belong to one camp or another is tiresome in the extreme.

Technology is just technology. It's not something to be For or Against. All it represents is the ability to use the natural elements of the Universe around us. What bothers people is the total lack of regard and responsibility displayed by those who make big, messy displays as they use Technology; as they interact with the Universe in destructive, dirty and dangerous ways which affect the world and everybody around them whether we like it or not. Technology isn't ruining the world. It's the greedy morons who are using technology in the negative who are ruining the world.

Films like The Matrix and Terminator aren't anti-technology. Heck, Frankenstein, the grand daddy of Luddite-style thinking, isn't anti-technology, even if Mary Shelly thought that it was, (and I'm not at all convinced that English professors are correct in their claim that she did!). These are messages which address the very real concerns that technology placed in the hands of greedy assholes is, in no uncertain terms, bloody dangerous!

I don't see anything wrong or misplaced in these concerns, or in being interested in the issues raised by those concerns. And in any case, The Matrix and Terminator were entertaining for more than just their sociological and special effects values. They were exciting films, for flip's sake! Change out of your camp tee-shirt, get on the bus, and come back to reality.

It says nothing about technology being bad. If you look past the fact that they are machines and see them as a people you can see many elements of some of the biggest fuckups in human history. The number of references to these were staggering. Off the top of my head (after just seeing it once), I got the following:

Surpressing other "peoples" civil rights for your own benefits.

The right to self-determination.

Slavery (obvious pyramid reference)

Trade sanctions against a country just because they are successful or you don't like them.

Inability to accept or listen to someone because they are different.

Attemping to surpress a people using force will come back and bite you.

They are undoubtably more in there that I missed.

I could cite a dozen references to each of these in the past 100 years alone. So called "modern society" in the west is guilty of most of them, some we are doing right now! Mainly, I thought the short was about how we repeat the same mistakes again and again and never seem to learn. With what is going on in the world at the moment, it's clear that we haven't learned a thing from history.

But nowhere was it implied that technology is "bad". At the most it was a futuristic negative utopia (1984, Brazil, Blade Runner), and it's clear that future human society will be utilising more and more technology, so it goes without saying that AI/machines will feature in it.

Watch it again, this time viewing the machines as people, sort of a "working class" society.

I gotta say, it was one of the most thought provoking things I've seen in a while. Very impressed, and normally I'm not remotely interested in Anime.

Mainly, I thought the short was about how we repeat the same mistakes again and again and never seem to learn. With what is going on in the world at the moment, it's clear that we haven't learned a thing from history.

We've all learned well enough. We're just too lazy and comfortable to act on the lessons, and who can blame us?

"Man, I've been fragging on Quake III for seven hours straight while surfing for pr0n during the high ping times. Guess I need to go out to the backyard and plow up my wheat field to get my lazy ass back to nature."

That's kind of why I find this Animatrix short so interesting. The dialogue in The Matrix does indeed make the machines out to be evil. But this anime places more of the blame--a lot more of it--on the humans of the day, whose luddism and fear and unwillingness to reach an agreement with the machines who just wanted to live in peace apparently led to the whole thing.

It becomes a lot harder to blame the machines for creating the Matrix after seeing this short.

I watched this last night (the short they released, not the trailer) saw some thing on it while my wife was watching Access Hollywood or ET...), it was neat animation and all, although the large format wasn't working, but the story wasn't that great. In fact it was actually quite disillusioning (is that a word?)- it seems like the humans were very mean to the robots - there was a robot holocaust and they were just defending themselves, trying to be free etc...so really what rights do the humans in The Matrix have to complain??? According to the short, they brought it on themselves.

I watched this last night (the short they released, not the trailer) saw some thing on it while my wife was watching Access Hollywood or ET...), it was neat animation and all, although the large format wasn't working, but the story wasn't that great. In fact it was actually quite disillusioning (is that a word?)- it seems like the humans were very mean to the robots - there was a robot holocaust and they were just defending themselves, trying to be free etc...so really what rights do the humans in The Matrix have to complain??? According to the short, they brought it on themselves.

No, they didn't. Given things like Agent Smith's comment that "entire crops were lost" when early incarnations of the Matrix failed, the humans in the Matrix were very likely grown by the machines for their power plant. The machines could be seen as abused children who are now lashing out at their children because that's all they understand about humans.

Either way, humans have an opportnity to break the cycle of violence; maybe Neo will figure that out in the last two movies. I kind of doubt it, because "can't we all just get along?" doesn't mesh well with awesome fight sequences...

Morpheus: Neo, we now have the ultimate weapon against the machines... a weapon so powerful that our victory is insured...

neo just stands there with his mouth hanging open

Morpheus: The Slashdot effect. Named after cyber attack (per the DMCA in the early 2000s), it harnests the power of millions of overweight single geeks checking out the newest movie clip at the same time. This will allow us destroy the machines once and for all.

Someone please mod these up! Here are the actual URL's for the Quicktime files of episode one. Since the site is pegged at the moment, few people can even navigate the pages. However these links should feed you the movies directly, at least until The Slashdot Effect inspires WB or Apple to move them, hehe.

I would reccomend using a tool like wget or lftp to grab them, as my connection reset several times while downloading (due to the traffic I imagine).

It's nice to have choices in entertainment, and a market that drives the creation of stuff like this.

While I like the "Star Wars" universe and even enjoy a few meager facets of the worn-out "Star Trek" universe, it's great to find anime used to generate realism and convincing stories within a very intriguing framework like the "Matrix" movies.

It's not extremely original, the story. We've got a basic Arthurian legend story going in the same way in the latter "Star Wars" movies. But, as any writer would tell you, it's all in the presentation. And present this offering does. Very fun to watch, and illuminating.

Okay, not only is the site using Quicktime to view the previews, but the site's size is hard coded to 1024x768, with no scroll bars. Had to resize the screen just to get download links. Quite annoying.

server's hosed. I keep trying to get it and I get a good rate for a while, then the cxn dies. OK, *this* is what would make me willing to pay for a subscription--if stories went into the subscribers area 1 hour before showing up on the main board. At least when big downloads are involved.

What? They're only releasing half the shorts online. Based on seeing this, I *do* want to buy the DVD. Indeed, I'm sure many people here feel the same way.::pokes around the Matrix site looking for a release date::

Since the main site seems to have been hit hard by this slashdotting, try getting it from this BitTorrent site [scarywater.net]; Please leave your download window open as long as possible after finishing the download to help out others getting the file.

Maeda is best known for the series Blue Submarine 6 (1998), which he designed and directed.

He has also done turns as animator, character designer, and in other roles, on well-known anime projects such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), The Wings of Honeamise (1987), and Neon Genesis Evangellion (1995).

Sounds like anime to me. Please do some research before you hit the "reply" button next time.

*Yawn* Of course anime is sexist and full of cheesecake, just as much as American shows do. the main difference is that the anime is far more likely to have sexually appealing underage girls.

As to anime as porn, replace every instance of anime in your previous statement with "movie." We have live action porn movies in this country, it uses a medium that is also used to convey works of art and random schlock. Just like anime. As a feminist should I avoid everything that might be tainted with non feminist ideals or should I just keep that in mind while I watch a damn goos show?.

If you want disturbing elements though, try reading up on the casual libking of sex and violence in Japanese culture. It gets very disturbing when you delve into it.

Look, I am female and feminist and I think that some of the strongest female characters to come out of Sci-Fi recently have been in Sci-Fi anime. Look at Major Kusanagi Motoko, from Ghost In The Shell. She's great. Sure, they have her shedding her clothes to let her chameleon pseudo-skin blend with the scenery...fanservice. But she's tough, she kicks ass, and her formidability is not merely physical, but mental too. There are similar cool characters all over Anime.

A series that is soon to be available again, this time on DVD, is Cat Girl Nuku Nuku. In it, you have some remarkable female characters. Mishima Akiko is the CEO of Mishima Heavy Industries, and her two-woman Administrative Assistant hit squad kick some serious butt too, especially Arisa, the gun-crazy "warrior maiden." One of the sub-plots has to do with Akiko trying to fit into the role of a stereotypical Japanese housewife to get closer to her son Ryunosuke, but coming to the realization that this is not for her. Kicking ass and taking names is.:-)

Yes, Nuku Nuku herself is a kawaii little thing in a Sailor-suit High School uniform. But don't fsck with her either. She knows how to throw down too. And if she's a little fluffy around the edges, don't blame her...she started out her existence as a cat.;-)

Cat Girl Nuku Nuku is coming out on the 10th. ADVision. A brand-new dub joins the subtitled version on the DVD. It's not going to have a lot of goodies like what they are doing with Excel Saga but oh well, at least it is coming out.

One last thing: Japanese pop culture has a lot of violence, sex, and sex and violence co-mingled. However, Japanese civil culture is perhaps one of the least violent the world has ever known. Investigate the homicide rate in Japan, then compare it to the US and Europe. Then get back to me.

Wow. I have seen ignorance on/. before, but this is just crazy. Anyone who can call the works of Tezuka Osamu or Miyazaki Hayao "no better than pornography" should probably educate themselves before posting. Yes, there is a lot of anime with sex and/or nudity in it. So do American movies and TV. But there is also anime with significantly better feminist messages than just about any Disney film (see any film by Miyazaki, Matsumoto Leiji, etc.), anime which raises interesting questions of gender roles (Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Versailles no Bara), and countless titles which no one could possibly find offensive.
So before you make blanket comments (especially about something as varied as anime), try to have some clue what you're talking about. Or at least give evidence.

There is a certain substantive portion of the anime produced for which the above is entirely true. It certainly is not a troll. To the extent that japanese women view japanese pornography - which is vile stuff, substantially - this is spot on, and a great deal of anime is merely sexist. American women view slasher movies which might follow in a similar psychological vein; I'm not sure that "internalising oppression" is really what is happening - people have a certain fascination with the horiffic which I think draws women to watch horror movies, and may draw japanese women to watch japanese pornography, such of it as includes a great deal of rape or S&M or what have you. To say that women who view softcore pornography are necesarilly self-loathing is excessively prudish. More apologetics below.

However, and this has been true for a long time, it is not a recent devlopment, a great deal of anime is not sexist.

In a lot of anime the female characters are stylised representations with exagerated secondary sexual characteristics - this is often true in material which objectifies women in a sexist fashion, but sylised (cartoony) representations of people do NOT necesarilly objectify them. Any particular work must be viewed as a whole. Having been a teenage boy, I can say that my perception of women at that time was hyper-sexualised; this is pretty much universal among straight teenage boys.

Is adolescent male sexuality inherently sexist? I think that it is not.

Is it sexist for artists who were teenage boys to represent female characters in this way, particularly if the protagonist is an adolescent male, as is often the case? It is not. It's an accurate representation of an internal environment, which is what a cartoon is intended to do.

To the extent that this stylistic element is repeated in works by women, which are about 50% of what is produced - I will not speculate on the internal environment of adolescent girls, but I don't think this arises from self-loathing, I think that would be reflected in the female characters behavior rather than in how they are drawn.

Finally, in a sexist society (Japan) is it sexist to represent sexist interpersonal relationships in a work of fiction? I agree that it is good and laudible for a work of fiction to attempt to break down popular preconceptions and prejudices, but it is always okay for a work of fiction to reflect one's actual experiences.

Every 'how to draw manga' type book I've ever read simply points out that large, exaggerated curves are more visually appealing than the alternative; it's a visual medium, so you exagerate things visually.

Or do you think that every artist who draws typical gravity-defying 'anime hair' was mocked as a child for having the traditional haircut? Or that the males who draw the seven foot, three inch wide 'CLAMP' style men have eating disorders? Or the swords that would break your arms off, should you ever actually try to swing them, were failed fencing students?

Sometimes, just sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes, just sometimes, the typical attributes of a visual art form are simply the typical attributes of a visual art form.

I'm aware that CLAMP is several females, but use them only as an example of a rather easy-to-identify anime/manga sub-style.

Hell, take a look at Yu Watase's Fushigi Yuugi; chock full of cute little girls in revealing school uniforms, an evil chick who's magic centers around 'hot lusty sexxxx to achieve inner peace and healing,' rape as a method of dominance and control, yet the entire story is a hopeful and magical 'magic girl' story. And she's a female artist.

Oh, and it's just oozing with bishonen prettyboys who strip to their skivvies at a moment's notice, and fall all over each other to be the best damn boyfriend they could ever possibly be.

What's unbelievable is that you feel the original post -- a cogent and very insightful message -- is somehow a troll.Says something about the/. community when they feel that feminist/anti-misogynistic posts are "pseudo-sociology".

Good point, but the machines probably consider their inception, as in their creation, inclusion in human society, and nigh destruction to be index "00" and seeing the failure of that existence, incremented to version "01" to signify a new begining. Eh?

Here in the UK, most of the new TVs you see in the shops of any size (24"+) seem to be widescreen nowadays. Widescreen is certainly the way it is going over here now - the Free-to-air digital stuff nowadays is now broadcast in widescreen.

I don't know anybody who has bought a new 4:3 TV in the last few years.